Volume 05 Page 09

It’s interesting how different the compositional tricks of webcomics are from the tricks of conventional paper comics. In webcomics you can do fun stuff by placing surprises below the “fold” so the reader needs to scroll down. In this case, the surprise is the legs of Kebra’s fortress, but you wouldn’t be able to get away with that in a conventional comic book. In a paper book, you need to plan for two-page spreads, so if there’s a surprise, you want to put it at the top of an even-numbered page. (Even-numbered pages are on the left.)

It’s an advantage to webcomics. The drawback is it’s hard to produce a full-page splash or a long vertical panel down one whole side of a page. The old Ninja Turtles comics, for example, did great things with its four eponymous turtles all racing up a fire escape (or something) in different poses, and it’s harder to get the full impact of that sort of thing if you have to scroll down.